Peaks of Policy Analysis: Six National Cases in Asia and the Pacific

This essay reviews six volumes from the Polity Press International Library of Policy Analysisseries, focusing on policy analysis in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Canada, and Australia. Using a mountaineering metaphor, the essay highlights the challenging and varied terrains of policy analysis within each nation. Each book systematically maps the distinct national policy landscapes, addressing the roles, techniques, influences, and guiding norms of policy actors in government, academia, and civil society. The first part summarizes the key insights from each volume, looking at their common coverage areas, as well as their treatments of more endemic policy issues and subjects. The second part of the essay proposes future research avenues across six rubrics: inter-disciplinary, inter-method, inter-typology, inter-domain, inter-temporal, and inter-linguistic. These suggestions aim to fuel future insights by encouraging broader and deeper conversations with related academic fields; re-assessments of analytical tools; strategic applications of existing conceptual typologies; strategic diversifications of coverage of key policy areas; further incorporations of nuanced historical analysis; and additional engagements with diverse linguistic sources. This review essay thus underscores the series’ important contributions to comparative public policy and identifies possibilities for future explorations into the complexities of governance and policy studies.